Midnight Blaze- Naruto Online Fanfic (Midnight Blade x Scarlet Blaze)
by Master-iPad
Summary: Title is uncreatively ship name XD- May change later. Where the hell are all the fanfics for this amazing ship? I've found three total, BY THE SAME PERSON, albeit they're very good (You can find them here: /tags/Midnight%20Blade*s*Scarlet%20Blaze/works). This may be the longest it's ever taken me to write what I have. Difficult! Hopefully slow and sweet.
1. Prologue: Team 10

Prologue: Team 10

"Kuso," Iruka muttered under his breath, eyes glued to the clipboard he was clutching. How had it turned out like this?

"Kakashi! Please get over here!" he hissed to the visiting jounin, who was sitting nonchalantly at one of the desks rereading another one of his Icha Icha books for what must've been the hundredth time. He hopped up and trotted over to the instructor.

"What's up?"

"We have a BIG problem here."

"And… what would that be?"

"…What have we done in the past when the number of students wasn't perfectly divisible by three? There's no way every class has always been that way, right!?"

"Uh…" If he was being totally honest, Kakashi couldn't remember a time when the class _wasn't_ split into perfect groups of three, unlikely as it sounded. Then again, he hadn't been paying a lot of attention to the classes before he got students.

"Well… I imagine some of the groups had to merge… How many kids are there? Who's left?" _Wait, please don't tell me it's those-_

"There are 32 this class, and all of them have been put into groups… except Midnight Blade and Scarlet Blaze."

Kakashi groaned, shutting his eyes and pressing two fingers to his temple. The antisocial prodigy and the impertinent but still highly skilled goof. No wonder that it had to be _those_ two. He'd had bad experiences with both in the past, one event giving him two broken arms and the other ending in all of his precious Icha Icha books being burnt to flakes of ash and his house nearly destroyed. What was worse was that the two had happened _at the same time._ Not to mention the 'incident.' Kakashi shuddered. He had the worst luck. _Especially_ when it came to those two.

"Gimme the clipboard," he sighed. His eyes scanned the parchment, finally coming to rest on a group of three names. Hm… the names rang a bell… He recalled a time when Iruka had praised them as being three of the brightest students. They could handle the problem kids, right?

"In the past, the two appear to have worked well with Crimson Fist, Breeze Dancer, and Azure Fang… for the most part," Iruka helpfully supplied.

"Great!" Kakashi threw the clipboard back at the surprised teacher and quickly made his way out the door before someone else could ask him to help with something, "Put them all in a group then!" _For the most part? Hmm… No doubt that their different type specialties would make for a good, well balanced team, but with the clash of personalities, I wonder if it'll really be okay… Well, whatever. It's not my problem anymore..._

"Huh… Our team," Crimson observed, "is kinda big compared to the others… isn't it?"

"The more the merrier, right? (^u^)" Azure chirped giddily. She loved people.

"Hmm. I guess I don't mind… Though I'd rather we had more girls," Breeze frowned.

"What's up, everybody!?" Scarlet exclaimed, happy that he wasn't going to have to be in a two person group with that snooty, brooding jerk, "Where is the jerk, actually?"

A low voice reached them as Iruka, Midnight trailing him, walked to their group to make sure everything was in order.

"Sensei, with all due respect, it seems as though our group is perhaps a little too large, and I work better alone anyway, so-"

"Ohohhh, no you don't!" Iruka replied, not even looking up from the papers he was riffling through on his clipboard, "In fact, Midnight-kun, I think you're the one with the most to gain from the formation of teams. Since you're already adept at working alone, then perhaps you should try practicing working with others, hm? If that's all, it looks like your group is ready for you to join them."

The two finally came to a halt, the instructor looking pointedly from Midnight to the group. Scarlet snickered, earning him a death glare from the prodigy. Iruka sighed inwardly. The two made a powerful duo, when they weren't at each other's' throats… Which was most of the time. Needless to say, the boys didn't like each other very much. He wondered why, sometimes. It wasn't like their chakra natures clashed, but he supposed that was fairly insignificant in comparison to personality types.

Scarlet was outgoing and boisterous where Midnight was silent and stayed away from the crowd, but there had been times in class when Iruka had glanced up to see the two, mirror images of each other. Gazing out the window, chins on their palms, lecture going in one ear and out the other. Iruka had to laugh whenever someone came into the room. Every time, their heads swiveled to the door in unison. The same thing happened when someone dropped anything, too. It was really amazing that they could tune out their sensei's voice so well but nothing else seemed to escape their attention.

Despite that, while they were never able to answer questions he asked them in class without a repeat, they both somehow still got excellent grades, so Iruka never saw a reason to reprimand them. It's not as though it would have accomplished anything, anyway. The boys were really a lot more alike than they thought. Of course, that wasn't the only similarity they shared,but seeing as they were always fighting on the rare occasions when they even interacted, it would be difficult for anyone to see that, much less themselves.

Midnight cautiously stepped to the edge of the group, staying a good yard away from the rest of them.

"And here I thought we'd grown on you," Breeze murmured sarcastically.

"'People' generally don't," he replied just as scathingly. Iruka raised an eyebrow.

' _Well, he's a little nicer to these four… er, three, than he is to anyone else… I think it'll be okay.'_

"Think of it this way," their sensei spoke genially, finishing his report and flipping the paper back to the first page, "Your group has specialties in all the types, and you all also passed the graduation exams with high marks. You'll be one of the strongest groups! Other teams aren't half as lucky, so play nice," he began to turn around, before appearing to remember something.

"Oh! One more thing. Your teacher asked me to pass this message on to his new students: Don't eat breakfast tomorrow." He gave a satisfied nod, and strode away, leaving the new team silent for a moment.

"...Wait. Why didn't they split us into two groups of four, instead of one group of five?" Midnight inquired stiffly. The other four shrugged in unison.

It was official. The new genin teams had been formed, and team 10 was stuck with five members.

Bonus! "This sucks!" Chibi Midnight pouted.

"You think you have it bad!? Think about us, ne!? We're the ones who're stuck with you!" Chibi Scarlet squeaked.

"C-come on. Calm down, guys…" Chibi Crimson attempted to smile, beads of sweat running down his face.


	2. Chapter 1: For Whom the Bell Jingles

"...I'm hungry," Crimson said. Azure was sitting on the ground, stripping the white cores from grass and tossing them in her mouth.

"Where. Is. Our. Teacher!?" Breeze growled, "We've been standing here for at least an hour now listening to the sound of stomachs trying to eat themselves, and Azure's resorted to eating grass!"

"It's not that bad," Azure piped up mildly.

"Joke's on him, I had breakfast anyway," Scarlet snickered.

"…I'm actually going to strangle you." Midnight blinked, "Heads up, someone's coming." They heard the sound of footsteps coming around the corner of a nearby building.

"Sorry, I got held up cutting- … WHAT!?" Kakashi's new students turned to face him as he stopped dead in his tracks.

"No… Impossible! No, no, NO, NOOOO! This isn't happening, right!? HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!? THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! I KNOW YOU DID THIS! IIIIRRRRRUUUUUKKKAAAAAAAA!" He fell to his knees, cursing at the sky, fingers forming claws and digging into the fabric of his mask. Back at the school building, Iruka sneezed.

"Huh. It's a little early for a cold," he mused, rubbing his nose.

Scarlet brightened when he saw who their new instructor was.

"Kakaaaashiiiii- _senseeeeiiiiiiii! Yoroshiku onegai shimaaaaaassssssu, heh heh heh heh heh!"_ he cackled menacingly, rubbing his hands together, red eyes glimmering with sinister glee. He shot a calculating glance at Midnight. Though at first glance he looked as impassive as ever, the corner of his mouth twitched sporadically. Crimson, who had been staring wide eyed at Scarlet after his display of evil intent, slowly turned to Kakashi and gave him a sheepish, sympathetic grin. Azure and Breeze both looked at him pityingly.

"It'll be alright, sensei," Breeze comforted. A single tear marked a trail down Kakashi's cheek, and by the time it soaked into top of his mask, he seemed to have pulled himself together.

"Deep breaths Kakashi, phooowhew. PHHHOOOOOOwwwhhheeewww. Okay, everybody. Maybe you've heard about this from your fellow classmates, but my way of doing things is a little different from other teachers." Midnight snorted. He didn't know what Kakashi had been hearing about his own teaching methods, but from what Midnight had heard, that was the understatement of the year. Kakashi coughed.

"Now, I know you must be tired of quizzes, seeing as you've just had your graduation exams and such, but we'll be taking another test today. Fortunately, you'll need no paper or pencil for this one. So, follow me everyone, we'll be heading to the training field!" he said, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"How much you wanna bet that was a clone? He seems to be fond of those," Scarlet grinned, leaping into the air.

"I thought we were supposed to sit in a circle and tell each other if we had any pets and what we liked to eat and stuff," Crimson raised his eyebrows, jumping up after his teammate.

"Eat…" Breeze said wistfully, following suit.

The fire ninja took a deep breath of the cold, fresh air. He loved being so high up, and even though the air was a little thinner, it was also so much sweeter. The sun was high and warm at his back, little birds swept past his fingertips, singing little songs. That they were not pooping on him was also a plus. He slowly closed his eyes, savouring the feeling… Until he was very suddenly kicked in the back.

"Huh!?" he cried, hurtling headfirst towards the trees of Konoha. Mind blank, his hands automatically came together and formed the signs for his signature jutsu.

' _Serpent! Dragon! Hare! Tiger!'_

"Katon! Ryuuka no jutsu!" A wave of heat blasted the rest of team 10 away from their intended landing spots as a huge flame dragon engulfed the area below. Scarlet, thrown up by the strength of the jutsu, touched down on the ground feather light. Fortunately, the clearing was mostly filled with fresh trodden grass that burned quickly and left only smoky earth and cooling embers. The few burning trees at the edge of the clearing, and the three wooden stakes in the center of the training field were swiftly put out by a panicking Azure. As they gathered in the center, Scarlet turned to the rest with a scowl.

"Okay, who was it? Who the crap kicked me in the back and almost killed me?" he said, squinting at each of them, arms folded.

Crimson, who had been unsuccessfully trying to keep a straight face, burst into laughter.

"Aw, you shoulda seen your face! Sorry dude, you just looked like you were having way too much fun trolololol, _killed_ you, ohoho don't be such a drama queen! Dont'cha think it was kinda overkill to burn all these trees though? Hahaha, I rained on your parade, and you rained fire and destruction on Konoha forest! GYAHAHAHA-OUCH!" Kakashi had silently come up behind them, shielding his chakra as only a jounin could, and whopped Crimson on the back of the head. Though there was a painstaking smile on what was visible of his face, they could practically see angry veins pulsing in his temple.

"For the record, yeah, it was overkill. But what are you doing kicking your teammates out of the sky?"

' _These brats will really be the death of me,'_ he thought bleakly, ' _And possibly the forest. Throw in the village for good measure. Man, and I thought Naruto and Sasuke were bad!'_

"Okay, team 10. Here's the plan for today," he fished around in his pocket, pulling out three small, silver bells.

"Since our team is strangely large, I took the liberty of getting another bell, which means that only two of you will starve today!" The genin exchanged confused glances. They were already starving. Except for Scarlet. That jerk.

"Your job," he pointed at them, "Is to obtain one of these bells. Do whatever you need to do to get them. Those who successfully do so will be able to eat the bentos I brought today. If you don't, you will be tied to these stakes, to watch the others eat and reflect on what you did wrong," he gestured to the three damp, charred wooden stumps, "Also, I won't be paying for your dry cleaning bills. It's pretty straightforward."

The bells swung lightly in his grasp, and Scarlet's eyes followed them like a cat watching it's prey. A grin slowly spread across his face as he studied them closely. This did not go unnoticed by a certain lightning ninja.

"Oi. What are you plotting over there, you sneaky bastard?" Midnight scrutinized his teammate, narrowed eyes shifting from the bells to Scarlet and back again. Scarlet straightened, putting on a injured front of innocence. He swaggered around the team and it's instructor, finally coming to a halt between Azure and Crimson.

"Me? Plotting? Sneaky? I'm wounded! Azure, tell him how honorable and sincere I am!" Scarlet said grandly, putting an arm on her shoulder.

"Yesterday he broke into my house, raided my fridge, and tried to give my cat a haircut before escaping out the window and lying about all of it," she deadpanned.

"...Ahem, didn't I tell you that you left the window open and the birds came in? These Konohan birds, you know them, hahaha!"

"Birds snipped SCARL- into my cat's fur, ate all my food, and turned into an orange vested, black haired 16 year old leaping out of my window?"

"...Yes."

"ANYWAYS," Kakashi coughed, sticking the bells in his pocket and taking out a book, "The test is starting! In 3… 2… 1!" Crimson lunged at Kakashi, who disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Dang!" he coughed, white smoke burning his nostrils and eyes, "It was another clone!"

"We might do better if we split up and surround him," Breeze said, taking out her fan and leaping into the trees. They nodded at each other, taking off.

' _Hm. Not bad,'_ Kakashi thought, casting his uncovered eye up from a particularly juicy scene to survey his surroundings, ' _One brat_ there _. One brat_ there. _One_ there _. And one-'_ he ducked as a katana crackling with electricity swished through the area where his neck had been. He spun in a low arc, going back to his book, and delivered the heel of his foot to

"Here!" …air.

Midnight jumped into the air, flipping his sword upside down, raising both hands up to bring the blade down heavily. He stabbed it into the ground, sending a shockwave through the earth. Dust, dirt, and Kakashi, who had been expecting a direct hit but quickly adjusted with a flip, flew through the air. From his perch, Crimson sighed.

"Typical."

He dropped from the tree, racing towards the instructor and preparing his super stone fist jutsu. Simultaneously, Azure popped out of the other side of the forest, making the signs for what Crimson recognized as her shark bomb. He turned to another area of the training field, where Breeze was already running towards their teacher.

'Are we all just doing our special jutsus?' she mouthed. Crimson shrugged, and she rolled her eyes. Two clones appeared, running by her side, and she got ready her trump card- giant rasengan. He grimly faced forward again. Despite their only being genin, if Kakashi hadn't been infamous for being one of the greatest shinobi ever, Crimson might have assumed that either Kakashi would lose a few limbs, or they would all die in a tangled mess of jutsus, _except_ for Kakashi. Actually, the second one still seemed like a very real possibility. Up ahead, Midnight whirled his sword, this time crackling with energy from the Chidori. His black cloak fluttered about his shoulders. Kakashi's eyes widened.

' _Chidori! Interesting… So he actually learned how to use it. With a sword, no less.'_

Many times, Kakashi had noticed a child's presence during his lessons with Sasuke, but he hadn't thought much of it. Chidori was such an advanced jutsu; it would be nearly impossible for a kid, and indeed, most adults, to master it at the rate Sasuke had, despite being a kid himself. The watching child shielded his chakra fairly well, but he'd let his concentration slip whenever anything cool happened. Of course, it was quickly covered again, but not fast enough to escape Kakashi's notice. Who would have thought that that same child could one day use his own invention against him? It wasn't quite mastered, since Midnight had only learned by example, rather than instruction, but that he could use it at all was in itself a feat, much less as well as he did.

' _If I disappear, they'll all kill each other, so…'_

Crimson wasn't exactly sure what happened, but one moment he was running at Kakashi-sensei, about to pound him into the earth, and the next thing he knew, he was cartwheeling backwards through the air.

"Whoa!" he landed hard on his back and tumbled several yards before coming to a rest in the forest he just ran out of. The world spun, or maybe he was still spinning. The sound of bells tinkled in his ears… Wait. That was real.

"Wow! You really flew!" Scarlet laughed, crouching next to Crimson's head and shaking a silver bell over his face, "Hey, take it, dude. And meet at the stakes in five minutes." The bell, trailing red string, dropped onto his face, slowly sliding off onto the ground. Then, he was alone.

' _Huh? Well, that was weird…'_ The earth ninja groggily sat up, putting a hand to his head. Seemed okay. Nothing was broken. Bell? Yep, there it was, sparkling in the dirt. But how had Scarlet gotten it when the rest of them had clearly failed, even using their signature jutsus? Deciding that he'd get answers later, Crimson made for the stakes.

Breeze had enough control over her surroundings that she was able to land on her feet, but it was clear that the 'everyone-gives-everything-they've-got-in-a-giant-attack plan' hadn't worked out. Rolling her shoulders back with a sigh, she froze as she heard the tinkling of a bell.

Attack! The air ninja swung her fan in a sweeping arc towards the source of the noise, not expecting a hit but hoping she could at least blow away her sensei's cover. The leaves were stripped off the trees and trunks of some of the younger ones split under the gale, but Kakashi didn't show.

"What's the big idea?" A voice complained from behind a cracked trunk. Breeze relaxed, allowing herself a small smile.

"Scarlet," she greeted, before a scowl darkened her features. She stomped over to him, smacking his head with the closed fan, "Where the hell have you been!? We've been busting our butts trying to kill sensei, while you've been hanging out in the forest!? Do you want to fail?"

"Ah, itai!" he cried, rubbing his head, "Jeez, it's not like I've been doing nothing! Here, take the stupid thing!" He threw a bell at Breeze. Her eyes widened, and she caught it out of reflex.

"Where did you get-?"

"I'll explain later, it's really good, haha, promise! But for now, go over to the stakes. Crimson should already be there!" With a casual wave, he disappeared as fast as he had arrived.

Breeze gaped incredulously at the spot where her friend had been just a few seconds ago.

"Alright, I think we're doing pretty good on time!" Scarlet said, pulling his wrist in front of him to take a look at the time before remembering that he didn't actually own a watch.

"Note to self… get a watch. Maybe with your own money."

Leaping from branch to branch, he headed to the general area he had seen Azure fall into. It wasn't long before they crossed paths, the water ninja healing some of the injuries she had acquired in the very brief bout with Kakashi-sensei.

"We did all that stuff, and we couldn't even lay a finger on him…" she thought aloud, depressed. Suddenly, she felt a high amount of chakra closing in at a fast clip. Eyes wide, she fumbled for a kunai in expectation of a battle.

"Heeeeyyyyy Azzzuuuuuuurrrrreeee!" A familiar voice shouted, and she relaxed, slowly lowering the kunai.

"Oh, it's you, Scarlet. Say, where were you during the fight? I don't think I saw you."

"Haha! I was getting my hands on…" he fished around in his pocket, pulling out a silver bell hanging from silky red thread, "This!"

Azure's mouth dropped open as the kunai fell to the ground.

"Wwwwwhhhhhhaaaaaaaattttttttt!?" She darted over for a closer look, "No way! When did you get this? _How_ did you get this!?"

"All in good time, my friend," Scarlet grinned broadly, "By the way, have you seen that brooding lightning nin? I missed the patch of trees he fell into. I know he really doesn't deserve it, but out of the goodness of my heart, I got him a bell, too. And this one is yours."

He dropped the bell into her hands. Azure furrowed her brow.

"But… If you've got one… and you're giving one to me… and Midnight, who supposedly doesn't deserve it… That makes three. What about Breeze and Crimson?" Scarlet winked.

"Don't worry! I've got it covered! They're already at the stakes, so you should head there too. I just have to find Midnight, and then we'll meet you there. 'Kay?"

"Okay… I think I saw Midnight fall about a kilometer from here. That way," Azure said, pointing in the direction she had been walking.

"Thanks, Azure."

Flashing her one last smile, he took off again. Azure waved with a little smile of her own, watching him disappear into the leaves.

"Did he clone himself with one bell?" she wondered, "But then, where are the clones? If they disappeared, then the bells should have, too. And where was he all this time…?"

Kakashi had spent a good 20 minutes enjoying his romance novel, which, in his opinion, was a bit too long without an attack from one of his genin. Especially that 'Midnight' kid. He seemed like one of those who would attack without consulting his team, who thought he could do everything himself, or perhaps, was afraid that asking for help would make him weak. Kakashi could tell.

He could tell because the young genin reminded him of himself, before Obito opened his eyes. Well, his left eye, anyway. Midnight had to be taught the importance of teamwork before he got himself and his teammates killed. It sounded cheesy- Kakashi had thought as much when he was at that age- but it was because of that lack of teamwork that he had lost his best friend.

That was 30 minutes now. Where _were_ those brats? Had they given up? Maybe he had really hurt them and they were lying around unconscious somewhere? Worry planted a small seed in his mind. He probably could have gone a little lighter on the genin, but the rate at which they had hurled themselves at him had created a sense of urgency. Now that he looked back on it, he had only sent four of them flying. But… weren't there were five on the team? He snapped the book shut on his knee and sprang up from the rock he was sitting on.

' _Let's see… There was the wind brat, the earth brat, the lightning brat, the water brat, and… wait.'_ The blood drained from Kakashi's face, ' _How could I have forgotten about the worst one of them all?'_ He gasped as a thought suddenly struck him.

"He probably pulled a Naruto and went after the food!" Stuffing the book into his leg pouch, he sprinted for the stakes.

When Kakashi arrived at the three stumps, panting, with his hands on his knees, the first thing that registered in his mind was that Midnight was splayed facedown in the dirt, with a gaping, bloody wound in the back of his head. Kakashi's mouth dropped open with horror.

"Don't worry, he's sort of fine. It's shallower than it looks. I guess he has a thick skull?" reassured Azure, who was tending to his laceration with glowing hands.

Breeze and Crimson snorted, both sitting on the ground. Scarlet was silent, with an entirely blank and unreadable expression on his face. He was hopping from stake to stake, staring at the one in front of him each time. A detached concentration dulled his eyes.

"Is this why you guys are just sitting around? Just because Midnight's failing the bell test doesn't mean all of you have to," Kakashi said, but his heart quickened. Could this be the unbreakable team bond he had been searching for? So early in the year? On the very first day, even? This group might have more to it than he had initially thought.

"No. We've got bells," Crimson grinned, opening his fist to reveal a shiny silver bell, a fine thread of carmine looped through his fingers.

' _What.'_

It wasn't even a question in Kakashi's mind. He patted his pockets, looking for the bells. Ah! There they were. Fishing them out, he counted the three bells in his hand. Now Kakashi was even more confused. He looked back up at his students.

Breeze was holding up another bell, a perfect twin of the ones in his palm. Azure, taking a break from the nearly healed wound, leaned back on her heels, pinching yet another bell between a thumb and index finger.

What the hell? Where were all these bells coming from? Kakashi sent his chakra through the ground in a light pulse, searching for clones… but there were none.

"Where did you get those bells?" he asked, befuddled.

Crimson shrugged, pointing to Scarlet who was still locked in his trance. Kakashi slowly walked towards the fire ninja.

"Scarlet. What did you do this time?" Scarlet blinked, teetering on the stake before setting his other foot down.

"Oh! Kakashi-sensei, nice of you to join us!" His eyes were sharp, and trademark smirk was back.

"Are you wondering about the bells?" Kakashi nodded. The rest of the team perked their ears and leaned a little closer to the raven haired genin. Even Midnight, who had been fighting off a pain induced stupor, strained to turn his head a few inches to the side.

"All I can say is, I ordered takeout from Ichiraku, and thanks for treating us, sensei! " he sang, pulling a bag of six takeout boxes out of nowhere.

"Food!" Crimson leapt up from the ground, tackling him off of the stake.

Scarlet tossed Kakashi's coin purse back at him. Stunned, it bounced off the instructor's chest, falling with a hollow clink into his palms. With shaking hands, he unsnapped the top of the coin purse, peeking in with a sense of dread.

"NNNNNOOOOOOOO!" He cried to the heavens, clutching his purse to his heart. "There were limited edition signed Icha Icha posters going on sale today!"

"This is highly entertaining," Crimson slurped his ramen, watching their teacher with fascination. Breeze and Azure sat down next to him to enjoy the show, breaking apart their chopsticks. Midnight was still lying on the ground, and Scarlet trotted over to him with two paper bowls of ramen, plopping down next to him.

"Are you still lying around? Lol, do you need someone to feed you?" he set his own bowl aside and opened a new pair of chopsticks, picking up a piece of chashu pork and poking it repeatedly at Midnight's mouth. The other genin glared at him, before suddenly chomping on the end of the chopsticks.

"...Well, I guess you're feeling better," Scarlet said, letting go of the chopsticks. He returned to his own bowl as Midnight sat up, wincing, chopsticks still clamped between his teeth.

"Itadakimasu. So how did you actually get the bells?" He asked. He was genuinely puzzled, which did not happen very often. Not that it showed, anyway.

"I bought them, hehe! Kakashi had to get them _somewhere_ , right? And it's not exactly like polished 2 centimeter stainless steel jingle bells with coated with silver, containing 4 millimeter ball bearings are hard to find. The girl at the register even threw in the red string for free! She was pretty nice. She kept giggling though; that was kinda weird. Anyways, I figured Kakashi didn't make them himself, 'specially when he said that he just got a third one, and it didn't look like there was anything particularly special about them. But what really sparked the idea in my mind," he snapped, grinning, "Was when he said, "Obtain one of these bells. Do whatever you need to do to get them." He never specified to get the bells _from him_ , and he told us to do whatever we needed to do to get them." For awhile, everyone slurped their noodles in silence.

"That's one of the dumbest and most ingenious things I've ever heard. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?" Breeze stared into the distance with a remote expression.

"Trust Scarlet to think of something like that," Azure grinned, slurping noodles

Kakashi slowly fell onto his side, still clutching his coin purse like it was a lifeline.

' _Generations have seen this test completed over and over with accurate results concerning the correlation between teamwork and mission success. Only to be duped…'_ He glanced up at Scarlet, who was taking a break from his bowl of ramen and was currently in the process of wiping a hand covered with soot from the stakes casually on Crimson's shoulder, ' _by this…_ IDIOT.'

Azure, who had been continuously inhaling noodles for the past five minutes, finally set her half empty bowl on the ground beside her.

"Thanks for getting the food Scarlet! This is way better than grass! And thanks, Sensei, for unintentionally paying for it! …Hm?" She fell backwards, stretching her fingers towards the bag and pulling back into her lap, "There's still a bowl in here… Could it be for Sensei?" Scarlet danced out of reach as Crimson took a swing at him.

"Nn? Oh, yeah! I figured I should at least get a bowl for sensei too, seeing as he paid for it and all, haha!" They turned to Kakashi, who appeared to be dead to the world.

Breeze quietly got up, picking up and covering the bowl, and setting it in front of their instructor, a pair of freshly broken chopsticks balanced on the rim. Solemnly, they all picked up their bowls and sat in a circle around their fallen sensei, eating in silence.

"…This is boring," said Crimson.


End file.
